Sadly!

Police’s dishonor

The Central Jail shooting and other incidents raise questions on Nepal Police’s honesty!

Jashwant Singh who tried to murder an inmate in the Central Jail.

On March 10, Indian national Jashwant Singh went through the security checking of the Central Jail to meet an inmate. In the visitor’s lounge, he produced a pistol and shot at Yunus Ansari – a son of former minister of Nepal who is in judicial custody for his involvement in fake Indian currency smuggling.

Ansari, a person who has been long accused for being an aide to Dubai-based notorious crime don Dawood Ibrahim, was lucky to survive for somebody nearby spotted the pistol. Singh was immediately arrested and police claim that he is a professional criminal and is wanted for four murder cases in India. Continue reading…

March 10, 2011 by Sadly!

Meaning of slap on Khanal’s face

slapped1-3844009

On Thursday, a 52-year-old Nepali slapped Jhalanath Khanal, the chairman of the third largest party of Nepal which is also the ruling party, in a public program in Itahari, some 500-km from Kathmandu. Khanal went there to welcome around 1,000 new party members and Devi Prasad Regmi, who used to be a UML cadre, lined up with other to reach one of the most likely candidate for next prime ministership, and slapped him right no his face so hard that Khanal’s glasses fell down.

“Politicians ruined the country, it’s better to go mad than be dead,” Regmi said in the police custody.

Although Khanal happened to be the receiver of the slap, it was a slap in the faces of all those political leaders who have a say in their party’s decisions. The unruly event, despite being condemnable, is something that reflects the frustrations of many more Nepalis.

slap-6351312

Devi Prasad Regmi, 52. Photos courtesy myrepublica.com

Regmi used to be a UML cadre; he voted for Maoist during the Constituent Assembly (CA) election for he thought ‘Maoists could give something to the country’ and was forced to slap Khanal ‘in anger’ for he could not ‘tolerate the leaders ruining the country’.

How many more Nepalis have been angered, even more than Regmi? How many more Nepalis want to slap leaders in their faces for their false promises? At least a few more, it’s just that they don’t have the courage. I am saying this after reading comments on news in many news sites, reactions in social media and blogs.

Time has not ran out yet! There are still a time that the leaders could save people from getting frustrated and angry – and if the leaders continue to search for consensus with inconclusive meetings and rigid stances, I am sorry to say, but many, many Nepalis will have an untold consensual agreement to follow Regmi’s path.

January 20, 2011 by Politics Talks Sadly!

Paras Shah: Crown Prince to Prison?

Former crown prince of Nepal Paras Shah was ‘taken under control’ by police on charges of firing with an illegal bullet at a resort inside a national park late night and threatening a Bangladeshi of life. No matter what will the court decide, the series of incidents has a greater impact in Nepal’s political scenario as it symbolically indicates the ‘real’ end of the monarchic power and is also a step towards the no-tolerance towards criminal activities under political hood.

I believe that it was wrong for Paras Shah, 38, to threaten anyone with a pistol and fire a round in air regardless of the degree of provocation injected by the person on the other side. It was a crime for a commoner (Paras Shah declared himself similar to a commoner) to carry an unlicensed weapon, to carry weapon inside a national park and to threaten someone of life firing on air. Continue reading…

December 15, 2010 by Politics Talks Sadly!

Nepal parliament’s embarrassment

Friday night continues to be pivotal in Nepal.

November 19, 2010 will go into history books as a shameful day for Nepal’s parliament and will continue to embarrass the nation for years to come. The representatives of the people involved in such a scuffle that ended with manhandling of ministers and ‘abduction of the budget speech’ by the Maoist lawmakers.

Into the records, Maoist lawmakers disrupted the House session and resorted to vandalism and manhandling soon after Speaker Subas Nembang permitted Finance Minister Surendra Pandey to table the budget. They manhandled Pandey and snatched the briefcase containing the budget booklet. Other Maoist lawmakers also manhandled some ministers and lawmakers belonging to the ruling party.

Budget is a dire need of the country for rescues it from plunging into the financial crisis. The people were told (by the leaders) that the main three political parties including the Maoist agreed for the budget through a constitutional amendment and use of special rights by the President. Maoist then backtracked and said allowing President to use the special rights might set a wrong precedent – and government was adamant to go with the budget presentation resulting in the ugly scene.

Shame on Maoists

After watching the incident live on television, there is nothing else to say to the Maoist. Through protest at parliament is allowed, their behavior was immature, beyond tolerance and unacceptable. Time and again, Maoist proved themselves to be immature in politics and their thinking/action had remained that of the rebels – not that of the democratic political party.

The UCPN (Maoist) should apologize with people for the incident.

Shame on Government

The government knew something is coming for the Maoists have said they won’t allow the budget presentation. Despite that they went ahead inviting Maoist for confrontation. They should have tried for a middle-path with understanding from the Maoist.

November 20, 2010 by Politics Talks Sadly!

Distasteful cartoons!

Cartoons are meant to be satire and humor but there are instances when they crosses the line of humor and become distasteful. And, I find the cartoons published in Nepal’s main two national dailies – Kantipur and Nagarik – just distasteful.

The following cartoon was published in Kantipur’s front page on October 13.

(c) Kantipur Publications

The following cartoon was published in Page 3 of Nagarik on October 14.

(c) Nepal Republic Media

Kantipur daily received a lot of criticism and complaints about the cartoon (as indicated by their own front-page sorry note) and they were forced to publish a note on the front page apology note on October 14.

October 14, 2010 by Journalism & Media Sadly!

It happens only in Nepali TVs!

Incident 1 (ABC Television): Two girls, tenth graders, were interviewed by the television. They were arrested for prostitution along with two pimps. The faces were blurred during most of the interview but frequently they were visible. And, the reporter named the school they were studying twice. For what?

Incident 2 (News24 Television): In a news item about tension after abduction and murder of a school boy in West Nepal, the TV channel live interviewed a reporter and repeatedly the video that showed a naked body being pulled out. Face and private parts of the dead body was blurred but nevertheless, the question is for what it was necessary to show the video?

Incident 3 (Sagarmatha Television): The national television channel LIVE broadcast the launching of a music album from a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. I have never heard about LIVE broadcasting of such a program in a national channel.

LIVE broadcast of album launch! Thanks to Umesh Shrestha for picture!

These three representative events happened in last few days. The mushroomed television channels are competing with each other to be recognized; and using any thing that could increase their viewership (no matter what the ethical standard is).

There are so many things to complain on the ethical standard of the news and program shown on such television channels – more so because they employ fresh reporters who are normally not educated or trained in journalism. Sadly, television is such a powerful media that the reporters consider themselves privileged and demand facilities accordingly.

In many occasions, journalists who are into the profession for long enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong, complain, quietly, about the questions those television reporters ask and the behavior they show during reporting. And, the seniors at television rarely care because they need something to show – and they have not enough human resource to train those reporters.

I am not saying print and radio are all standard and ethical but they are far better than televisions. And, organizations such as Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), Press Council Nepal and other NGOs – with slogans to work for media – should think of training programs for those reporters working in televisions.

October 6, 2010 by Journalism & Media Mainstream Media Sadly!

Cybersansar scandal: Greed for money

On Wednesday, Nagariknews.com ran a news story along with a ‘sting operation video’ on the copyright infringement by a well-known cyber business company.

Police arrested the owners of Dreams & Ideas – Dipankar and Abhinav Kasajoo who made name, fame and money through cyber business. They also redefined Nepali modeling industry with their very popular cybersansar.com and made money by developing websites for government agencies and others.

Their greed for money probably was much more and that put them into the illegal business of downloading pirated High Definition (HD) movies through torrents and selling them to customers through a website – givemehd.com (now closed) which lists hundreds of available movie titles.

Nagariknews sting video shows a man posing as a customer visiting the office of Dreams & Ideas and buying a 3D movie with Abhinav himself talking about it and handing a copied movie on external hard drive.

I wonder how they can do this so openly. Didn’t they know that was illegal or they were just trying to ignore? The news surprised many and a lot of people, including those in similar business, have asked me the same question: why they need to do so to earn a little more money?

It becomes even ridiculous with the price of the movie – Rs. 100 (US$ 1.5) for HD movie and Rs. 200 (US$ 3) for a 3D movie. With so many successful sites running, I know they earned a lot of money only through advertisements, and there was absolutely no need for them to go into something illegal.

In Nepal, we could buy a pirated DVD of any English or Hindi movie for Rs. 25 (less than half-a-dollar) anywhere as freely as we could buy a newspaper. Copyright law is not strongly implemented, but that’s not an excuse to anyone to do an illegal business.

Sadly, the Kasajoos are sons of Vinaya Kumar Kasajoo, a noted journalist and writer who is the chief commissioner at the National Information Commission and has been an advocate/expert for online journalism and related issues.

It’s still to see if they are proven guilty or not, but it should go down as a story of greed!

September 16, 2010 by Sadly! Tech Talk

I admit defeats

I admit defeats! First, I admit the defeat of hope of an average Nepali in the hands of the politicians whom I had the misunderstanding of having some qualities of the statesman.

By extending the term of the Constituent Assembly (CA) by one year, they proved true those who liked to call them the corrupt-minded and selfish. I’m sure many of the 601 CA members did not like the extension (compared to constitution) but they are more helpless than us.

They had to follow what their party/top leaders say and keep quiet. I can at least vent out.

I had always believed that no matter what the leaders say or do, they will somehow come out united to promulgate the new constitution within the deadline. For this side of the story, I debated at tea-shops/gatherings with some of the most pessimists; I wrote blog entries and I believed it would happen despite all odds.

But I am proved wrong. My belief based on hope was just a passing thought. My hope was just an arrow swishing through the dark unknown of its destination.

And, the the most importantly success in the part of the leaders (in keeping us foolish) is that they made us pray for the extension (forgetting that the mandate we gave them was for promulgation of constitution by May 28, 2010). Otherwise, they made us the believe, the country will go into deepest trouble possible.

Defeat is hard to digest; and to admit. The parties (I don’t know if they could be called political) could not even compromise (defeat is a long way ahead); not even for the betterment of the country and decided despite knowing the possibility of dirty games from extremists that the liquidity of the situation should continue rather than consolidated.

And, as I – as an average Nepali who provided mandate for the leaders to write constitution in two years – feel betrayed with the defeat, I sat to analyze where I was wrong.

The first wrong thing I thought was: Maoists are different. They proved not to be. They fought for power (not for people) as all other parties; were divided internally on personal egos and double-tongued.

The second wrong thing I thought was: the leaders learnt lessons after the Maoists’ War and the Royal Takeover that extremism can put the country in danger. They however did not. The April Uprising that people (not the parties) staged was not enough for them.

The third wrong thought I had: belief in magic. Yes, the country had never suffered much. Whenever it looked like the country going into a real danger of being a failed state, there was some magical turn that put the nation back on the track (the end of Maoists’ conflict and the end of Royal Regime).

I still believe in magic. I still believe that the leaders will do something. And, I still believe there will not be much problem. All this beliefs are there because I have no other options to believe on positively.

And, although I admit the defeat; there is no winner. I am defeated; all Nepalis are dejected; nation is beaten and the all those leaders, they too have lost. The winner: no one.

May 29, 2010 by Politics Talks Sadly!

(Enough is enough) End strike.

Our vote is for peace.

[UPDATE: At 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Maoist withdrew the general strike.]

So many wars, settling scores
Bringing us promises, leaving us poor
I heard them say, love is the way
Love is the answer, that’s what they say,
But look how they treat us, make us believers
We fight their battles, then they deceive us
Try to control us, they couldn’t hold us
Cause we just move forward like Buffalo Soldiers
– Waving Flag by K’naan

On Friday, the indefinite general strike called by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) entered the sixth day – without indicating that it’s going to do any good for anyone. The increasing incidences of minor clashes, however, are clear indication that a few more days of it may result in violence – the last thing that Nepalis want.

It’s time for main political parties to make compromise because this is not a ‘win-win’ situation but rather a ‘lose-lose’ situation with the Nepal – the country – and Nepalis – the people – are set to become the biggest losers.

Watching the Maoists’ YCL cadres carrying iron-rods or locals at Budanilkantha carrying Khukuris does not feel good in the hard time when for an average Nepali, their village/city is becoming a jail-like environment due to strike.

CPN-UML/Nepali Congress

We know this is the biggest time for you to ‘bring the Maoists on/below their real ground as their strike seemed to have no popular participation’.

But, for the country, the strike/indecisive situation is fast becoming a quicksand. So please, compromise – begin thinking that the Maoist is the biggest political force and the one that received votes of more Nepalis than any other party.

MAOIST

Success and failure travel together. Withdrawing a strike does not mean you failed – rather it will mean that you care for the country. If an agreement can be reached with the parties by withdrawing the strike first, please show that mercy to the country/people.

Don’t continue difference over a ‘bird first or egg’ issue.

The path to confrontations leads only to more confrontations, to achieve peace, all have to turn back to take a different path.

Enough is enough. End strike.

May 7, 2010 by Politics Talks Sadly!

Docs, heart is important, isn’t it?

Last week, a few hours before some doctors at the TU Teaching Hospital decided to close-down emergency service as a part of their protest, I was there for a not-so-emergency case that required an operation.

The consultant doctor who was seeing the patient for months was there ready to perform the operation. But the agitating doctors decided, after failed negotiation with the administration, that even emergency would be closed.

We were left stranded with a patient needing a surgery on the same day. Thankfully, I was among a few who had connections so that I could arrange, for the higher price and even higher psychological pressure, a private hospital’s operation theatre.

But majority of patients at TUTH could only wait – either the end of the protest or life!

* * *

At school, they taught me that heart is the most important organ of the body – the central. I didn’t go to medical schools, but I am sure the doctors know the fact more clearly than me.

The doctors of course know importance of physical heart that beats for blood?

But do they have the heart that beats for the feelings?

* * *

For last two weeks, the TUTH is closed due to strike. For those who can afford, closing down a government hospital probably means nothing than a topic of gossips.

But for those who are not rich – TUTH is lifeblood.

For me, watching people waiting for the hospital services to resume, in the premises of TUTH, during my four hours there a week ago, was almost unbearable. Probably I was dressed a little well, some of them looked at me as if I brought them a message of resumption of service.

The pain was on their face; the tears on their looks.

But do the doctors feel the pain? Do they see the tears?

* * *

What’s not there for doctors in Nepali society? It’s a most respected profession. Many believe doctors are gods. They earn good, at least in Kathmandu.

Health services are essential services. No matter what happens hospital should not be closed down.

I have heard, certificates and studying alone does not make a man wise. What could be a better example than the doctors who have decided to close down health services for merely protesting the ‘alleged rigging of examination’?

* * *

Doctors, if heart is the most important, why don’t you have one?

March 30, 2010 by Sadly!

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